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Manual of Style
The Manual of Style (abbreviated MoS) is a style guide for Young Kingdoms Wiki articles. This article contains basic principles. It has been adapted from the extensive MoS located on Wikipedia. 'General Principles' Internal Consistency An overriding principle is that style and formatting should be consistent within an article, though not necessarily throughout the Young Kingdoms Wiki as a whole. One way of presenting information may be as good as another is, but consistency within an article promotes clarity and cohesion. Therefore, even where the Manual of Style permits alternative usages, be consistent within an article. Stability of Articles Editors should not change an article from one guideline-defined style to another without a substantial reason unrelated to mere choice of style, and that revert-warring over optional styles is unacceptable. Where there is disagreement over which style to use in an article, defer to the style used by the first major contributor. 'Article Titles' * Article titles should conform to Young Kingdom's Wiki Naming Conventions, including Use Upper Case. * Titles are generally nouns or noun phrases (Languages of the Young Kingdoms, not About Languages of the Young Kingdoms). * Titles should be short, preferably fewer than ten words. * Titles of articles of are capitalized (Gnoll Tribes of the Skyspear Mountains and Surroundings}}, not [[Gnoll tribes of the brazen peaks and surroundings). * "A", "an", and "the" are normally avoided as the first word (for Geography of Calafia, not The geography of Calafia), unless part of a proper noun (such as a real-world title: The Great Beyond. * Special characters—such as the slash "/", plus sign "+", , and square brackets are avoided. 'Capitalization' Capitals are not used for emphasis on the Young Kingdoms Wiki. Where wording and context cannot provide the emphasis, use italics. For example, "hobgoblins may RARELY be amenable to diplomacy" is incorrect, while "hobgoblins may rarely be amenable to diplomacy" is correct. Use of "The" in Mid-Sentence The definite article is not normally capitalized in the middle of a sentence; but there are idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of works of art, which should be quoted exactly. Common usage should be followed on a case-by-case basis. For example, "Kessog is the largest city in The Lost Coast" is incorrect, while "Kessog is the largest city in the Lost Coast" is correct. Titles of People * When used generically, words such as "governor", "baron", and "king" should be written in the lower case. (For example, "Charlus the Bald was a Calafian King" is incorrect, while "Charlus the Bald was a Calafian king" is correct. * When used as part of a specific title such words begin with a capital letter: "King Charlus", not "king Charlus". In addition, the formal name of an office is treated as a proper noun: "The Dragon Lord of Bor Tyressul is Gomanulf", "Reiyas the Younger is Prince of Povero", and "Imazar III is the current Pontifex of Tarn" are all correct. Royal sobriquets are capitalized: "Her Majesty" or "His Grace Religions, Gods, Philosophies, Doctrines, and Their Adherents * Religions, sects, and churches and their followers (in noun or adjective form) start with a capital letter. Generally, "the" is not capitalized before such names ("the Brendinians", not "The Brendinians". * Religious texts (scriptures) are capitalized and italicized, though if the word "the" is used, it is generally not capitalized. For example: the Book of Black Thought, the Nyanishads", and the ''Way of the Blade. Exceptions to this exist, such as The Judgments of Brend and The Merciful Blessings of Miwayne. * '''Honorifics and nicknames for gods', including proper nouns and titles, start with a capital letter, such as "Lurker in Darkness", "Earthmother", and "Dawnlord". Generally, "the" is not capitalized before such names: "the Beastlord", not "The Beastlord". The same is true when referring to major religious figures and figures from mythology by titles or terms of respect such as "the Prophet", "the Pontifex", and so on. Common nouns denoting deities or religious figures are not capitalized; thus "the Chayk do not worship the gods, but rather venerate their ancestors", "many dark sects found in the cities of the Lost Coast worship the demon-god Orcus", and "Miwayne was a mortal who ascended to godhood". * Pronouns and possessives referring to figures of veneration are not capitalized in wiki articles, even when they traditionally are in a religion's scriptures. They are left capitalized when directly quoting scriptures or any other texts that capitalize them. * Broad categories of extra-planar or legendary creatures do not start with uppercase capital letters; thus "archon", "demon", "devil", "angel" and so on. Names or titles of individual creatures are capitalized, as in "the Lawgiver", as are those of groups whose name and membership are fixed like "the Dukes of Hell". As with terms for deities, generalized references are not capitalized: "demonic", "elemental". * Spiritual or religious events are likewise capitalized only when they are terms referring to specific incidents or periods, such as "the Feast of Fire", and "Redemption Day". However, "the annual fire festival", "the day you confess your sins and are forgiven for them", and "the longest night of the year" are not capitalized, even though they refer to the same events. * Platonic or transcendent ideals are capitalized ("Good", "Truth", "Wisdom") but only within the context of philosophical doctrine; used more broadly, they are in lower case. Personifications represented in art, such as a statue of the figure "Justice", are capitalized. The Calendar * Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter: "Summer", "Shieldsday", and "the "First Day of Greengrass" (the first day of the year, generally considered a holiday in the Young Kingdoms). * Seasons, in almost all instances, are lowercase: "This summer was very hot" or "The winter solstice occurs on the 13th, 14th, or 15th of Icinglace". When personified, season names may function as proper nouns, and they should then be capitalized: "I think Spring is showing her colors". Animals, Plants, and Other Organisms Common (vernacular) names of flora and fauna should be written in lower case. For example, oak or lion. There are is one major exception to this: where the common name contains a proper noun, such as the name of a person or place, that proper noun should be capitalized: "the Chayk bear" or "the Soravian saddle-pony". Celestial Bodies * When used generally, the words "sun", "earth", and "moon" do not take capitals: "the sun was peeking over the mountain top". * Names of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, stars, constellations, and galaxies are proper nouns and start with a capital letter. When a name has more than one word, it is treated like other proper nouns with each first letter capitalized. Directions and Regions * Directions such as "north" are not proper nouns and do not take capitals. The same is true for their related forms: someone might call a road that leads north a "northern" road. If the direction is part of a proper noun, then capitalized as usual: "the Great North Road". Composite directions may or may not be hyphenated, depending on the general style adopted in the article ("southeast Dentraver" and "south-east Dentraver" are both equally acceptable, as long as usage is consistent within the body of the article. * Regional names that contain directions are proper nouns and thus take capital letters, such as "the Southern Province of Soravia". Similarly, someone from the Southern Province of Soravia is a Southerner. Institutions * Names of institutions ("the University of Bor Tyressul", "the Library of Evermist", and the "White Abbey") are proper nouns and require capitals. Generic words for institutions ("university", "hospital", "library", and so on) do not need capitalization. * Bodies of government, such as cities, towns and countries, follow the same rules: the names of specific cities, towns, countries, etc., are proper nouns and require capitals but generic words for types of government bodies do not take capitals. Sometimes, the full official name of a body is not needed. Italics * Italics are used sparingly to emphasize words in sentences (and boldface is normally not used at all for this purpose). Generally, the more highlighting in an article, the less the effect of each instance. * Italics are used for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, paintings, plays, statuary, and music. The titles of book chapters, songs, and other short works are not italicized, but are enclosed in double quotation marks. * Italics are used when mentioning a word or letter or a string of words up to a full sentence: (for example, "the natives of the Emerald Forest call the jungle Mundurukku. * Words in languages other than English should be italicized. For example, "the Sun Elf word for "king" is aratararadhel". Geographical Items Places should generally be referred to consistently using the same name as in the title of their article. Chronological Items * Avoid statements that will age quickly by not using words such as "recently", "soon", and "now", uless their meaning is fixed by context. Avoided related terms, like "currently", "in modern times", and so on. Instead, use more precise expressions (such as "since Year 5106 IR", or "as of Year 5092 IR". * Dates are not normally linked unless they are regularly associated with a specific event. * Yearless dates (17th Harvesttide) are inappropriate unless the year is obvious from the context. There is no such ambiguity with recurring events, such as "1 Greengrass is the first day of the year". * In-world years are always counted using Imperial Reckoning. When including in-world years, always include the word "Year" ahead of the year's numbering, and the suffix IR afterward, such as "Year 5100 IR". ** There are other dating systems in use in the Young Kingdoms, but the standard is Imperial Reckoning, and as such it will remain the only system in use to number years unless the context of an article requires a year to be numbered under a different reckoning. Numbers Numbers as Figures or Words * As a general rule, in the body of an article, whole numbers from zero to ninety-nine are spelled out in words, while numbers greater than ninety-nine are rendered in digits. For example, eight, sixteen, and thirty-five are all spelled out, while 3.75, 2500, and 14,340 use digits. Numbers larger than 999,999 are rendered in a combination of digits and numbers: 1 million, 10 million, 100 million, 1 billion, and so on. * Numbers are used in information tables and infoboxes are always rendered in digits. * The numerical elements of dates and times are not spelled out. * Centuries are named in figures: "5th Century IR". When used as an adjective, it is spelled out "fifth-century warships". * Large rounded numbers are generally assumed to be approximations; only where the approximation could be misleading is it necessary to qualify with about or a similar term. Percentages * The word percent is commonly used to indicate percentages in the body of an article. The symbol "%" may be more common in complex listings. * The symbol is unspaced ("71%", not "71 %"). * In tables and infoboxes, the symbol is used, not the word "percent". * Ranges are preferably formatted with one rather than two percentage signifiers ("22 – 28%", not "22% – 28%"). Units of Measurement * In general, use imperial units (miles, pounds, gallons, and so on). Do not list both imperial measurements and metric measurements, as doing so is considered redundant for the purposes of the wiki. * In the main text, give the main units as words; for example, "a pipe four inches in diameter and twelve feet long" would be correct. * In tables and infoboxes, use symbols and abbreviations for units, not words. Currencies When in-world references to monetary values are required the following rules should be used: * When general units of currency are used, the unit, in singular, should follow space after the value, and should not contain periods. For example, fifteen copper pieces would be rendered "15 gp". * When known, a specific currency name should be used ("fifteen Calafian crowns" instead of "15 gp". If the nationality of a currency is clear in the context it is used, the national adjective may be omitted. For example, "in Calafia, a decent sword can be purchased for 15 crowns."